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22 thoughts on “Conference Schedule”

I was surprised when I read your post regarding a July deadline. I think many are assuming the same deadline as before; earliest a Sept submission latest submit by end of Dec. The loss of up to 5 months is significant. I think the sooner the format and deadline information is out the better as those who were planning to showcase activities in the late summer may need to regroup. Thank you.

The reason for the early deadline is that we need to have registrants signed up for multi-day tours 9 months prior to the conference . . . in order for our tour company to set up the multi-day tour hotels, busses, etc. So, that pushed everything back.

And then, feedback from Search for Excellence judges was that they didn’t feel they had enough time to judge applications . . . so we wanted to make sure that we provided enough time to organize and send out applications to judges, and allow judges enough time to thoughtfully consider applications.

Our goal is to send out a call for Search for Excellence applications in early February 2016. Keep an eye out for the call for applications. We’re in the final stages of tweaking the information on our call for Search for Excellence applications.

That was purely an oversight. Maryland is my home state ~ and I sincerely hope the UMD MGs can travel to Oregon to be part of the conference. ALL states, Canadian Provinces, and overseas Master Gardener volunteers, faculty and staff are invited to the mixers. If a state/province/country was left off, that was an oversight on my part, and I sincerely apologize. I’ve made sure to add MD to it’s regional mixer (MD is part of the Northeast Extension Master Gardener Region).

We are planning garden tours around Portland during the conference, as an option for folks who want a ‘break’ from breakout sessions. The plan is to have tours on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday . . . but the final garden tour schedule will depend upon the sites and hosts we are able to confirm. Stay tuned! We’re working hard to put on a good show.

It would be great to see a workshop or two on how Master Gardeners are supporting School Garden Projects. The American Horticulture Society’s Youth Garden Symposium will be taking place the same week in Portland! Maybe there could be some cross pollination to highlight School Gardens at the IMGC.

Hi Von. Sorry. I initially missed your comment. The mixers are simply a chance to meet and greet MGs from your region, and beyond. We’ll have ice-breakers and a few games . . . but mostly it will be a chance to have some ‘down time’ to visit with MGs across the five US regions, and abroad. All you have to do to participate is register, and show up.

I am still playing with the registration cost on my spreadsheet . . . to hit that ‘sweet spot’ where we cover conference expenses, yet keep attendance as affordable as possible. Right now, that sweet spot is somewhere between $315 and $330. ‘Final’ price will be posted when we go live with registration, on October 10th.

Is dinner on our own? At previous IMGC events, there has been an Awards Banquet. I didn’t see anything like that in the schedule. Will there be one? Also, I hope you will include an introduction of MGs state by state, as done at some of the previous conferences.

Dinner is on your own, each evening. The Search for Excellence awards will be presented on the first full day of the conference, during the 1st general session. Also, thank you for your suggestion of introducing MGs, state by state. I will make note of that, and will see what can do, to work it into a general session. Do you remember how long it took to introduce MGs, state by state, at previous conferences? If we have the time, we will add it in to a general session. We already have several things in place to recognize MGs by state ~ including a map to pin your location, photos of MGs by state, and regional MG mixers. If introducing MGs by state is something that has been done in 10-15 minutes, we can likely work it in to a general sesssion . . . but 30+ minutes would be much more difficult to accommodate.

The Multnomah County Master Gardeners will be selling beautiful tee shirts, with our state flower (the Oregon Grape). But as of yet, we don’t have a group selling tee shirts specific to the conference.